Born in Rochester, Indiana, in 1927, John Chamberlain grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He moved 1957 to New York, where for the first time he created sculpture that included scrap-metal auto parts. He used these found metal pieces as raw materials, shaping them at will, adding paint, and welding the finished compositions to preserve their stability. Despite the heavy and rather unyielding character of such material, Chamberlain’s work often achieves a lyrical quality-colorful, anthropomorphic, somehow lighter on its feet than one would expect. The dismantled and reshaped auto body quickly became Chamberlain’s signature sculptural medium. Although he eschewed the material for a period starting in 1967, he resumed its use in 1974 and continues to work in this media at present. In the early 1980s, Chamberlain moved to Sarasota, Florida, where a more spacious studio enabled him to work on a much grander scale than he previously had. There he produced large-scale sculpture such as The Menil Collection’s American Tableau, 1984. (Menil Collection) |
